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Is it okay to practice in a pit at your school with your coach on a pit that is not legal by the new NFHS rules?

I would think there would be legal liability issues and all that if someone got hurt. Not to mention its not a good idea to jump on a pit thats not legal anyways.

i dunno if its legal, but i do it everyday neay. all my schools got is illegal, and its ok with my coach.

I have not seen anything in the high school rules that prohibit it. However, here comes my warning. I'm a law professor. I teach a class called Sports Law. I am in the process of finishing a journal article about pole vault safety & liability. MY OPINION is that even practicing on an illegal pit is risky. Here's why. The NFHS made the new rule requiring bigger pits as a safety rule designed to decrease the likelihood of injury; especially the type of injury that has caused the greatest number of catastrophic injuries and deaths over the past 20 years: namely, vaulters missing the pit altogether or landing partially on and partially off - thereby hitting their heads, causing brain damage. If that type of injury were to occur while a high school vaulter was practicing on an illegal pit, the vaulter's lawyer would argue that by allowing the vaulter to practice on an illegal pit, the coach, school, AD, school board, etc. is acting negligently, and thus should be responsible (i.e., have to pay for the medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of income, etc.). Legal negligence is the failure to act like a reasonable person under similar circumstances. So, the lawyer would argue to the jury that it was unreasonable for the coach to permit vaulters to jump on a pit that is smaller than that required under the new NFHS rule. Many jurors probably would agree. So, it is a significant legal risk for a coach to allow vaulters to practice on an illegal pit, I think.

Have your school buy 3 or 4 of the blow-up mattresses to put around the edges and the back of the pit. Then if someone goes off the pit, they would be hitting a padded landing!

While it may not be safe to jump on a landing system that does not comply with the NFHS rules it does not disqualify anyone who does for further meets or scrimmages.
Allowing athletes to jump on a small landing system does obligate and place the risk of liability on the coach and the school and should be addressed before doing so.

PLACING APPROPRIATE BASE UNITS FROM THE HIGH JUMP AREA AND FROM OTHER PV PITS IS A GOOD WAY TO REDUCE THE RISK AND COMPLY AS BEST AS POSIBLE.
The rule is in place to apply to Practice and Competition.
Is it legal to jump in practice on a PV landing system that does not meet the NFHS rules?

The answer is [b][color=red]“NOâ€Â

A few of the companies still have availability for this season. The next thing to consider is USATF this summer. Shorter pegs are MANDATORY (we dont need to debate this, for now we must comply, like it or not). Only ONE flat side on the crossbar ends. Of couse the Wt limit rule does not apply under USATF rules.

Over promise - under deliver -- and if you think meets are not being conducted with set-ups that do not comply with the rules - get out an see some more meets - We still have pits available and people still do not follow safety procedures - some things are hard to change

PVJunkie wrote: Of couse the Wt limit rule does not apply under USATF rules.

Only if the meet is for Open and Masters levels.
The Youth Divisions 18 an under, now have a weight requirement as of Jan 2003.

Thats got to be the dumbest thing..............OK OK calm down. So what your saying is that it is OK for masters and open to use a pole weighted under their wt (it must be safe) but not an 8 yr old. Whats the difference. Not to mention that most of the Youth live by the HS rules anyway. I think the USATF is sending a bad message here. This is either a rule for all or none. Its not a rule for some not others.

Back to F=mass times velocity squared - we all realize that at the lower and upper ages the velocity is less - it is an imperfect world isn't it!

Decamouse wrote:Back to F=mass times velocity squared - we all realize that at the lower and upper ages the velocity is less - it is an imperfect world isn't it!

The bad thing about getting older is not only do you lose velocity but you gain mass!!!